Chrysalis

Print

-

HCC Permanent Art Collection

A person crouches, holding delicate fans, surrounded by leaves in a mysterious, natural setting.

A person crouches, holding delicate fans, surrounded by leaves in a mysterious, natural setting.

Name/Title

Chrysalis

Entry/Object ID

2025.4.1

Description

On a tea-stained cyanotype printed on Japanese Okawara paper, a crouched figure faces away, partially concealed by foliage and framed by dead leaves and surrounding shrubbery.

Collection

HCC Permanent Art Collection

Made/Created

Artist

Jaime Aelavanthara

Manufacturer

Jaime Aelavanthara

Date made

2020

Time Period

21st Century

Place

* Untyped Place

plant city

Notes

Jaime (Johnson) Aelavanthara grew up in the woods of Mississippi where whippoorwills, coyotes, and other wild animals outside her window became her daily melody. Jaime received her B.F.A. from the University of Mississippi in Imaging Arts & completed her M.F.A. in Photography at Louisiana Tech University in 2014. Currently an Associate Professor of Art at the University of Tampa department of Art + Design, her work explores themes of the human condition and an interconnectedness with nature. She has actively exhibited nationally and internationally in venues such as the Mississippi Museum of Art, SEITES Gallery, Canada, and the Ogden Museum of Southern Art. Her work has been used as cover art for literary works including The Virginia State Colony for Epileptics and Feebleminded (Persea Books, NY), and Venus in Furs (Roads Publishing, Dublin). Most recently, Aelavanthara won SOHO Photo Gallery’s 2017 International Portfolio competition and was awarded a solo exhibition at SOHO Photo Gallery, NY. Jaime Aelavanthara has been recognized as a finalist in 2014 and 2015 for the Clarence John Laughlin Award, which recognizes photographers who utilize the medium of photography for creative expression. In 2015, Aelavanthara won the Grand Prize in Maine Media Workshops’ international competition Character: Portraits and Stories that Reveal the Human Condition. Aelavanthara's work has received past funding through a visual arts fellowship award from the Mississippi Arts Commission in 2016. Her work is in public and private collections including the Mississippi Museum of Art in Jackson, the University of Arkansas in Little Rock, and the International House Hotel in New Orleans.

Location

Category

Storage

Web Links and URLs

CV/Website

Interpretative Labels

Label Type

Didactic

Label

Jaime Aelavanthara (b. 1988) Chrysalis, 2020 tea-stained cyanotype 40 x 30 in. Gift of the artist, 2025.4.1 In this tea-stained cyanotype titled Chrysalis, Jaime Aelavanthara photographs herself crouched on the forest floor in Plant City, Florida. Clutching two decaying, wing-like leaves, her inward posture suggests a tension between stages of a metamorphosis. Part of her series Where the Roots Rise (2018-2020) Aelavanthara explores cycles of life, death and renewal in Florida’s wild landscapes. Printed on delicate paper—prone to tearing and wrinkling—the work reflects nature’s vulnerability and impermanence. Aelavanthara, raised in the Mississippi woods, is an Associate Professor of Art at the University of Tampa whose work explores the human condition and our connection to nature. This work of art is a part of the HCC Permanent Art Collection. Through its Campus Loan Outreach Program, HCC Art Galleries seek to share original works by collecting a diversity of art for the education and enjoyment of the HCC Community.